1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus used as an output apparatus of a host computer such as a personal computer or a work station, or as a recording portion in a facsimile or a copying machine.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a recording apparatus is composed of, an auto-sheet feeder in which a plurality of recording media are stored, a feed roller having a friction member for feeding the recording media from the auto-sheet feeder into a main body of the recording apparatus, a conveying roller for sub-scanning the recording media in the main body of the recording apparatus, a conveying pass portion provided between the feed roller and the conveying roller, and a recording medium detecting portion (hereinafter referred to as a “detecting portion”) provided at a predetermined position in the conveying pass portion.
In the above structure, after a recording medium fed by the feed roller that feeds the recording media one by one is passed through the detecting portion, the recording medium is fed to a nip position where the conveying roller is in pressure-contact with a pinch roller that is rotated by the rotation of the conveying roller, and then conveyed by the conveying roller to a recording portion for main-scanning a recording head. When registration for the recording medium fed by the feeding roller is performed in the nip position, the conveying roller is stopped or reversed to be struck by the fed recording medium in a nip position, and then the recording medium is conveyed by the conveying roller. On the other hand, when the registration is not performed, the recording medium is fed to the nip position in a state that the conveying roller is rotated forward in advance. Whether the registration is performed or not is selected in accordance with a thickness of the recording medium and rigidity thereof.
There are the case where the feeding roller and the conveying roller are driven by one motor as a driving source and the case where these rollers are driven by different driving sources, respectively. However, when one motor is used, a structure for switching the feeding roller and the conveying roller is complicated and reliability is degraded. Also, when recording for a plurality of recording media is performed, a switching time becomes long. Therefore, the structure in which the feeding roller and the conveying roller are driven by different driving sources has an advantage with respect to a total recording time in recording for the plurality of recording media. Also, by using different driving sources, during discharge of a first recording medium, feeding of a second recording medium can be performed easily, whereby a recording time can be shortened further.
However, in the above structure, during discharge operation of the first recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a “preceding recording medium”) in which recording has completed, in a case where feeding of the second recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a “succeeding recording medium”) to be fed next is performed at a time when the trailing end of the preceding recording medium is detected by a detecting sensor by passing through the detecting portion, the trailing end of the preceding recording medium may be on the discharge roller at the start of recording to the succeeding recording medium depending on the size of the apparatus. If so, the trailing end of the preceding recording medium is caught on the recording head, whereby a jam or the like may occur.
To prevent this, it is necessary to take some time between a time when feeding the succeeding recording medium and a time when the recording medium detecting sensor detects the trailing end of the preceding recording medium, whereby a feed time period is increased slightly that much. Thus, when recording for several tens of recording media is performed, since an idle time is accumulated to be unnegligible in total.